FLEABAG
****
Director: Vicky Jones
Screenwriter: Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Principal cast:
Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Country: UK
Classification: CTC
Runtime 80 mins.
Australian release date: 11 October 2019
Previewed at: in season at Hayden Orpheum Theatre, Cremorne, Sydney.
Fleabag (UK informal): a dirty and/or unpleasant person or animal. - Cambridge Dictionary.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge is presently riding high, not in the saddle but sitting on a stool, as the most successful female comedy writer/performer of the present day. Her one-woman monologue, Fleabag, initially appeared in 2013 but it wasn’t until 2015 that it was acknowledged as a triumph at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She has subsequently gone on to receive numerous accolades for the two-part television series of the same name that emerged from the show – the first series won a BAFTA for Best Female Comedy Performance and the second took out six prime-time Emmys, including the award for Outstanding Comedy Series, plus PW-B personally won awards for Outstanding Lead Actress and Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series. This filmed stage production for National Theatre Live was recorded at Wyndham’s Theatre in London’s West-End and follows a sold-out season in New York. Oh yes, did I mention she was the showrunner for the sensational Killing Eve series, is a co-writer of the forthcoming James Bond movie No Time To Die and has just done a massive deal with a streaming service. This woman is on a roll!
Described by the UK Daily Telegraph as, “Funny, vibrant, snarky and touching,” and The Guardian as, “Witty, filthy and supreme,” this hilarious and, at the same time, incredibly dark rant, is a testament to the state of the modern woman. Fleabag, Waller-Bridge’s stage character, is liberatingly angry, while simultaneously coming across as confused and, at times, arrogant, in her attempt to examine the mores of her life and current-day female sexual behaviour. In her honest disclosures (“I’m a bad feminist!”) about her primal sexual urges, usually the preservation of men, Fleabag doesn’t hold back and you find yourself laughing and cringing in agreement with her. She is a revelation, struggling with relationships within her family, including a ‘successful’ sister and a father who has married her god-mother. Her bestie, ‘Boo’, has died in tragic circumstances, leaving Fleabag in the wreckage of their small business - a guinea-pig themed café - which was really kept afloat by Boo’s bubbly personality. She is also faced with the constant flux of her romantic encounters, often aligning herself with men who aren’t sexually compatible but simply to fill a void - in more ways than one! In fact, her whole life is overwhelmed by dissatisfaction, loneliness and insecurity, which are exposed without any sense of feeling sorry for herself or, indeed, any hint of self-censorship.
Last month, Waller-Bridge signed an incredible 20-million-dollar deal with Amazon Prime Video to produce on-going TV content. It will be interesting to see whether she is given a free reign and doesn’t fall under the dark hand of censorship, particularly in the US market. In the midst of the #MeToo period, it is refreshing to come across someone who is prepared to state that now women are able to freely discuss their sexual fantasies. In a recent Saturday Night Live appearance she said, “…the weirder your fantasy, the more open you are about it, the cooler you are.” Now that’s liberating! Waller-Bridge is not afraid to challenge and provoke her audience. Screening in a limited season only, Fleabag is a must-see if you don’t want to miss out on the show, and the woman, of the moment.
Screenwriter: Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Principal cast:
Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Country: UK
Classification: CTC
Runtime 80 mins.
Australian release date: 11 October 2019
Previewed at: in season at Hayden Orpheum Theatre, Cremorne, Sydney.
Fleabag (UK informal): a dirty and/or unpleasant person or animal. - Cambridge Dictionary.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge is presently riding high, not in the saddle but sitting on a stool, as the most successful female comedy writer/performer of the present day. Her one-woman monologue, Fleabag, initially appeared in 2013 but it wasn’t until 2015 that it was acknowledged as a triumph at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She has subsequently gone on to receive numerous accolades for the two-part television series of the same name that emerged from the show – the first series won a BAFTA for Best Female Comedy Performance and the second took out six prime-time Emmys, including the award for Outstanding Comedy Series, plus PW-B personally won awards for Outstanding Lead Actress and Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series. This filmed stage production for National Theatre Live was recorded at Wyndham’s Theatre in London’s West-End and follows a sold-out season in New York. Oh yes, did I mention she was the showrunner for the sensational Killing Eve series, is a co-writer of the forthcoming James Bond movie No Time To Die and has just done a massive deal with a streaming service. This woman is on a roll!
Described by the UK Daily Telegraph as, “Funny, vibrant, snarky and touching,” and The Guardian as, “Witty, filthy and supreme,” this hilarious and, at the same time, incredibly dark rant, is a testament to the state of the modern woman. Fleabag, Waller-Bridge’s stage character, is liberatingly angry, while simultaneously coming across as confused and, at times, arrogant, in her attempt to examine the mores of her life and current-day female sexual behaviour. In her honest disclosures (“I’m a bad feminist!”) about her primal sexual urges, usually the preservation of men, Fleabag doesn’t hold back and you find yourself laughing and cringing in agreement with her. She is a revelation, struggling with relationships within her family, including a ‘successful’ sister and a father who has married her god-mother. Her bestie, ‘Boo’, has died in tragic circumstances, leaving Fleabag in the wreckage of their small business - a guinea-pig themed café - which was really kept afloat by Boo’s bubbly personality. She is also faced with the constant flux of her romantic encounters, often aligning herself with men who aren’t sexually compatible but simply to fill a void - in more ways than one! In fact, her whole life is overwhelmed by dissatisfaction, loneliness and insecurity, which are exposed without any sense of feeling sorry for herself or, indeed, any hint of self-censorship.
Last month, Waller-Bridge signed an incredible 20-million-dollar deal with Amazon Prime Video to produce on-going TV content. It will be interesting to see whether she is given a free reign and doesn’t fall under the dark hand of censorship, particularly in the US market. In the midst of the #MeToo period, it is refreshing to come across someone who is prepared to state that now women are able to freely discuss their sexual fantasies. In a recent Saturday Night Live appearance she said, “…the weirder your fantasy, the more open you are about it, the cooler you are.” Now that’s liberating! Waller-Bridge is not afraid to challenge and provoke her audience. Screening in a limited season only, Fleabag is a must-see if you don’t want to miss out on the show, and the woman, of the moment.